A vehicle may use an onboard weather radar system to detect adverse weather conditions, which may enable the vehicle crew to make changes to the route as necessary to avoid potentially hazardous weather. The onboard weather radar system may be mounted on the vehicle and may use radar scans to detect reflected radar signals from weather formations such as convective weather cells associated with turbulence, rain, lightning, hail, or other such weather conditions. Up-to-date weather information may assist the vehicle crew in evaluating whether or how to modify a route to avoid certain weather cells, as well as to promote fuel efficiency, time efficiency, and passenger comfort. The onboard weather radar system may control weather radar scanning and may process radar return signals to present a visual weather radar display.
A vehicle in flight may also receive weather data from, and transmit weather data to, other sources such as ground-based weather radar stations, which may help identify convective weather regions or other emerging hazards for operations. Traffic control systems track positions and velocity of vehicles and help control vehicle positions within the vicinity of hubs such as airports. Traffic control may be based on radar surveillance, and may also be supplemented with cooperative radio surveillance techniques, such as techniques using automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) systems.